1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable blower utilizable mainly in cleaning works.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In parks and athletic fields, apt to be drifted with fallen leaves and/or rubbishes, a portable blower such as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,946, patented Aug. 10, 1993, has hitherto been used to scrape or sweep up those fallen leaves and/or rubbishes by the effect of an air stream emerging from an air blow nozzle thereby to enhance the cleaning efficiency. As shown in FIG. 10 of the accompanying drawings, such a portable blower includes a casing 81 accommodating a blower fan and a combustion engine as a drive unit to drive the blower fan, both not shown, and having an air intake opening 82, defined in a side wall of the casing 81, and an air blast opening 85. The air intake opening 82 is covered with a covering member or grille 83, which is generally a net-like or grid-like cover, and an air blow nozzle 86 is fluidly connected with the air blast opening 85.
The portable blower 80 of the structure described above is carried by an attendant worker with his or her hand holding a handle 87 provided at an upper region of the casing 81 so that the air blow nozzle 86 may be directed to scattering fallen leaves and/or rubbishes to enable those fallen leaves and/or rubbishes to be scraped or sweet up to one or more piles thereof by the effect of an air stream emerging from a tip opening 86a of the air blow nozzle 86. The pile or piles of the fallen leaves and/or rubbishes are subsequently packed into garbage bags or directly into a garbage car.
During the cleaning work with the portable air blower 80 of the structure described above, it is quite often that since the air intake grille 83 is positioned laterally of the worker's leg, a clothing, particularly one of the trousers of the attendant worker may contact the air intake grille 83. Once the trouser contacts the air intake grille 83, then drawing an air stream therethrough into the interior of the blower 80 by way of the air intake opening 82, the air intake grille 83 is blocked off with the air stream failing consequently to be smoothly sucked through the air intake opening 82.